by the examples of FLARECAST and jHelioviewer. Presentation held on the occasion of a Taiwanese delegation visiting the School of Engineering, FHNW Windisch, Switzerland. André Csillaghy, October 2015

1. Big Data in Science
by the examples of two European research projects:
JHelioviewer and FLARECAST
Institute of 4D Technologies & Data Science i4Ds
School of Engineering
University of Applied Sciences and Arts
Northwestern Switzerland FHNW
André Csillaghy, Simon Felix, Michael Graber
JHelioviewer

2. The tool offers new possibilities for analyzing
solar eruptions and the ejection of huge
masses of matter as seen in this screenshot.
JHelioviewer is an ESA project.
i4Ds developed the 3D - functionalities.
JHelioviewer
Visualzation software for accessing large archives of high quality solar image data
JHelioviewer

3. Image: NASA/SDO
This is where most data processed by JHelioviewer come from:
the NASA’s spacecraft Solar Dynamic Observatory, a space telescope
delivering high resolution data in unprecedented quantities.

4. Solar activity affects the Earth.
When a solar storm hits the Earth,
charged particles from the sun
interact with the atmosphere
generating the polar lights.
This is the beautiful side of solar activity.
Image: Joshua Strang, United States Airforce
Why so much effort for understanding the sun?

5. However, there is also a downside to solar activity.
A solar storm hitting the Earth may affect electronics
both on the ground and in space.
The more dependent we become on space based
technology, the more important precautionary
measures are.
We study the sun to reliably predict space weather in
order to better protect our vulnerable assets on the
ground and in space.

6. FLARECAST
Flare Likelihood and Region Eruption Forecasting
FLARECAST is a European research project for developing
a fully automated solar-flare forecasting system with
an unmatched accuracy compared to existing facilities.
Project partners
• University of Genova / CNR, Italy
• Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
• Met Office, UK
• Academy of Sciences Athens, Greece
• University of Paris Sud / CNRS, France
• University of Applied Sciences and the Arts FHNW, Switzerland

7. FLARECAST will analyze huge amounts of data in order to develop an automatic
prediction system for future space weather events.
Image: quadtec.com

8. Information of interest are extracted from images using
advanced image processing techniques.
Credit: P. Higgins et al

9. We use machine learning algorithms for automatic detection of structures and features on
the solar surface. The result will be a software that automatically predicts the risk of a
solar explosion.
Graph: datarobot.com

10. Once successfully implemented for big data sets in
space weather prediction, the prediction system will
be transferred to other areas such as energy
management, transportation or the management of
large cities.